Ceiling construction and method of hanging same



g- 9, 1955 I R. FACCIOLO 2,714,750

CEILING CONSTRUCTION AND METHOD OF HANGING SAME Filed Nov. 10 1950 method of installing suspended ceilings. larly it relates to an improved suspended ceiling by which certain disadvantages, inherent in prior constructions, are eliminated.

plaster ceilings, involves several steps. rough framework is prepared usually by suspending bars by the use of rods and the like, from an overhead floor or roof. These bars are generally in parallel relationship and spaced apart on the order of about four feet. tween these bars are spaced lighter strips generally at right angles from the suspended bars and in parallel relationship with each other. generally spaced apart on the order of about 16". lath is secured to this framework and plaster then ap- 30 plied to the lath until the desired thickness has been built up and the ceiling formed. This procedure obviously requires much time and involves considerable labor expense.

tion to provide a method of making a suspended ceiling by which the laborious procedure of the presently practiced method is eliminated.

United States Patent CEILING CONSTRUCTION AND METHOD OF HANGING SAME Raymond Facciolo, Drexel Hill, Pa.

Application November 10, 1950, Serial No. 195,003

2 Claims. (Cl. 20-4) The present invention relates to a novel ceiling and More particu- The presently practiced procedure of making suspended First of all, a

These lighter strips are Metal In the past, various methods have been suggested for making certain types of suspended ceilings. Each of these methods however, has been directed to a specific type of construction and is not of general application. tain of these methods have involved the imbedding of wires in a preformed boardlike structure with the free end of the wires protruding from the top side of the board. These boards were then suspended from supports from the overhead floor or roof to form the ceiling. The main disadvantage of this type of construction is that little flexibility is permitted to take care of 4 situations where the supporting overhead members vary as to position and spacing. position of imbedded wires in the board was fixed, the position of the overhead suspending support member also had to be fixed.

suggested methods involving imbedded wires, there is no arrangement for securing the board tightly or snugly against the supporting member.

Cer-

In other words, since the In addition, with many of these It is therefore, a principal object of the present inven- Another object is to provide a suspended ceiling con- A still further object of the present invention is to provide a method for snugly securing suspended ceilings to the overhead supporting structure.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an improved ceiling construction having a plurality of preformed panels suspended from a plurality of hangers.

Further objects will be apparent from the specifics tion and drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective showing the top of a ceiling constructed in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a transverse section as seen at 2-2 of Fig.

ice

1 and additionally illustrating the suspending hangers at various heights;

Fig. 3 is a perspective showing an alternative manner of securing the ceiling;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged perspective detail showing one of the individual suspending loops; and

Fig. 5 is a sectional detail illustrating the use of a finish coating for the underside of the ceiling.

In accordance with the method of the present invention, preformed panels of plasterboard or the like are positioned beneath hook-shaped hangers secured to the overhead structure from which the ceiling is to be suspended. A plurality of relatively untwisted bundles of filaments are formed into loops, passing over the hangers and having both ends cemented to the top of the boards with plaster of Paris. Within a brief time the plaster of Paris hardens, thus securely holding the boards in place below the hangers. Any desired number of panel boards are thus suspended side-by-side in like manner, to cover the entire ceiling. If necessary, the resulting ceiling may have applied thereto a thin finishing white coat of plaster to conceal any conspicuous joints or cracks.

The composition boards used with the present invention may be any one of a wide variety of structural materials generally referred to in the trade as plasterboards. Such preformed sheet-like panels are usually made of plaster of Paris, gypsum, mixtures of plaster of Paris and lime, mixtures of gypsum and lime, various hydraulic cements, for instance Portland cement, and the like. Also, the boards preferably contain various filling materials to impart added strength thereto. As examples of such filling materials are vegetable fibers such as jute, hemp, sisal and the like. The particular type of board selected depends upon the type of ceiling desired and so far as the present invention is concerned, is immaterial so long as it is capable of being bonded securely to the loops. In other words, any boardlike structure composed primarily of inorganic materials such as those mentioned above, may be employed. The sheeting selected may possess a smooth bottom face so that little or no finishing is required once a series of such sheets have been suspended in place side-by-side to form a ceiling. On the other hand, boards having a relatively rough bottom face may be employed, in which case a finishing coat of plaster may be applied to the bottom faces of the assembled and supported sheets to form a finished ceiling.

As stated previously, a plurality of preformed boards are suspended by loops of fibers or filaments cemented to the top face of the boards by an adhesive such as plaster of Paris, and engaged in hangers secured to overhead joists or the ceiling structure. In forming the loops it will be understood that any bundle of animal or vegetable filaments may be used. However, I have found that a bundle varying in length from 4- to 12" of untwisted vegetable fibers such as jute, hemp or sisal, is highly satisfactory.

The plaster of Paris employed is, of course, well known in the art and when used to cement the loop to the top of the board, a slurry of plaster of Paris in water is employed. Such a slurry is generally made by mixing from about six to about ten gallons of water with one hundred pounds of dry plaster of Paris.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, a ceiling constructed in accordance with the present invention is suspended from rafters or joists 10, 10. A plurality of metallic hangers 11, 11 are driven into joists 10 in the usual manner and the hangers at their bottom ends bend upwardly to form supporting hooks. Since it is almost impossible to install the hangers 11 so accurately that there is no variation in height nor in alignment, it has heretofore been considered impractical (if not impossible) to use conventional plasterboard for a ceiling. With the present method, 'it is immaterial whether the hangers 11 are accurately aligned either vertically or horizontally, it being only important that there be a sufficient number'of hangers per square footof ceiling area to support the weight of the boards. Fig. 2 illustrates in a somewhat exaggerated manner the variation in height which may readily occur between various individual hangers. It will be noted that hanger 11a is somewhat shorter than hanger 11b and although these two hangers are both driven into their corresponding joists 10 at the same relative height, the distance from the bottom of the hanger to the top of the panels 13 is different. Even though all of the hangers are identical in length, it is entirely possible that they may be connected to joists at different levels. For example, hanger 110 is driven into its joist 10 lower than hanger 1111, with the result that thebottom supporting terminus of the hangers may vary substantially over the area of the ceiling. My improved ceiling construction and method of installing same permits a great saving in time because minute accuracy in'locating the hangers is no longer required.

In order to support the ceiling in a level condition, I place two longitudinal rows of boards on a scaffold (not shown) or any other suitable supporting structure. With the boards properly fitted in place, a bundle of fibers or filaments is saturated with a suitable quick-hardening adhesive such as plaster of Paris, and then the fibers are spread out over the upper surface of the boards and looped over the hooks, as shown in Fig. 1. filaments forming the bundles for loops 12, 12 also depends upon'the vertical distance between the top of the boards and the hangers. However, it is highly desirable to provide sufiicient length so that the ends of the bundle may beseparated and dispersed on the top surface of the boards, as shown by the position of the fibers of loop 12a'in Fig. 1.

'It is desirable that a suflicient amount of plaster of Paris slurry be used to provide an adequate supporting area foreach end of the bundle and it may also be desirable to saturate the part of the bundle that is carried over the hook so that the entire supporting loop 12 hardens quicklyinto a unitary rigid mass. An important feature of the present construction resides in the fact that the loop itself is in effect a continuous mass of plaster which when hard, is reinforced by the filaments to form'an'integrally bonded part of the board. It will be understood however, that it may be entirely feasible to select a material for the loop and/or bundle which may be secured to the top of the board in such a way that it is unnecessary to apply the adhesive or hardening slurry over the entire extent of the loop.

In Fig. 1, I have shown the loops as straddling joints between adjacent rows of composition boards. The loops at the end junctures of the boards may be plastered across the joints so that a corner loop is adhesively secured to all four boards. This feature may be desirable in securing a perfectly smooth undersurface for the ceiling at the corners which would be the place most likely for any misalignment to be noticeable.

Fig. 3 shows a variation in forming the loops 12a in that the lower portion of the loops is entirely closed in by the plaster of Paris. This also illustrates how a larger number The length of the of loops maybe used to support an individual board in the event such added strength may be desirable.

Fig. 4 shows, on a greatly enlarged scale, the dispersion of the filamentary bundle 12c such as is used in one of the loops 12b. The outline of the hardening adhesive or slurry is shown in broken lines.

Fig. 5 shows a ceiling construction generally similar to Fig. 1, but in which a finish coat of plaster 14 is applied to the bottom of the ceiling to conceal the joints between the boards.

It will be understood that it is not necessary that the loops be applied to any given row before adjacent rows have been set up since the entire ceiling can be laid from above, if there is suitable access through the upper floor.

It will thus be understood that the present ceiling construction and method of installing same enables a highly satisfactory ceiling to be provided which greatly reduces the cost. The labor involved in applying the conventional plaster to the ceiling represents a substantial part of the cost of the building so that any type of construction which fully or partially eliminates expensive labor costs is highly desirable.

Having thus described my invention,

I claim:

1. In a ceiling construction, an overlying structural support, a plurality of preformed panels disposed in side by side abutting, substantially co-planar relation, said panels being disposed in spaced relation beneath said structural support, a plurality of hangers engaging said support and depending therefrom, and a plurality of adhesively saturated connecting members, said connecting members having the intermediate portions thereof engaging the depending ends of said hangers, and the ends of said connecting members being adhesively connected to a pair of adjacent panels.

2. The method of hanging a ceiling, which comprises the steps of supporting a plurality of preformed panels of plasterboard or the like adjacent to each other and in spaced relation beneath a'plurality of hangers, saturating bundles of filamentary material with an adhesive, looping the intermediate portions of said saturated bundles over the hangers and securing the respective ends thereof to the tops of the adjacent panels to adhesively connect the ends of the bundles and the tops of the panels and to interconnect said panels with each other through said bundles and hangers, adjusting the length of the unhardened bundles in accordance with the space between the hangers and the panels, allowing the saturated bundles to harden, and removing said support.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,223,216 Talley Apr. 17, 1917 2,017,911 Manske et al. Oct. 22, 1935 2,101,181 Johnson Dec. 7, 1937 2,152,418 Olsen Mar. 28, 1939 2,374,556 Miller et al Apr. 24, 1945 2,425,883 Jackson Aug. 19, 1947 2,537,922 Strasser Jan. 9, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 244,918 Great Britain Dec. 31, 1925 

